In the fabrication of concrete slabs, e.g., pavement, sidewalks, driveways, patios and floors, it has been customary to manually perform the grading and finishing operations after the concrete is initially poured to achieve a desired surface finish on the concrete slab. Typically, the grading and finishing work is accomplished by hand operated screeds or trowels. The necessary manual operations has made grading and finishing of concrete surfaces especially time consuming and expensive.
Although techniques have been previously proposed to utilize roller devices to grade and finish concrete surfaces, such techniques have not gained widespread acceptance. These techniques typically employ a roller intended to roll along the concrete surface as the roller is pushed or pulled across the concrete slab. Since there is a tendency for the roller to sink into the concrete, such techniques have not been appropriate to use on freshly poured concrete. Thus, it has been necessary to continue to initially grade freshly poured concrete by hand. Further, even after the concrete has been partially cured, the rolling action of the roller has tended to roughen the concrete surface. Again, it has been necessary to use a substantial amount of manual effort with trowels to subsequently smooth the concrete surface to the desired finish. Consequently, the previous roller techniques have not been able to substantially reduce the time required and cost to grade and finish concrete slabs.